Meatless Soup Recipes

Heavy, meaty, high caloric main dishes gobble up more than 35¢ of the average American food dollar. I think that's too much to spend, especially on meals that are bigger and harder to digest than they ought to be.

For that reason, I've worked to develop lighter, less expensive — but still nutritious — meatless soup recipes for the meals I fix. And my favorite creations of all are soups made from nothing but fresh vegetables, clear water, and spices. Such comestibles are filling, warming, healthful and inexpensive. Plus — if, like many MOTHER people, you grow your own vegetables — these soups will cost you almost nothing!

Soup Kitchen Secrets

Here are some of my personal potage practices. I'm happy to share them with you!

A handful of spinach leaves, pounded and added to a soup five minutes or so before serving will produce a fine green color. Parsley or celery leaves work, too.

An excellent gumbo for a small family can be made from the throwaway trimmings of steaks and roasts at the local butcher shop.

Parsley or celery can be dried in a slow oven. In the case of parsley, the stems can be picked out and the leaves tightly bottled for later use. The dried celery stalks and roots can be grated and also bottled. A small bunch of fresh parsley, or 2 tablespoons of dry, are all you need for 4 quarts of soup.

Rolled oatmeal is almost as nice as rice in soup.

To make noodles: Stir in all the flour that one egg and a dash of salt will absorb. Roll out the dough as thinly as possible and let it dry. Then roll it up again, slice the dough into narrow strips, and drop them into boiling soup about 15 minutes before you expect to serve them.

To prepare croutons: Drop cubes of stale bread into about 1 inch of fat. When they've browned, remove the bits of bread and drain them on absorbent paper. Float the croutons in soup just before you serve it. You can also place thin slices of fresh bread well buttered and cubed — in a baking pan, buttered side up. and bake them briefly in the oven.

Please remember, of course, that the recipes listed at the top of this article are simply guidelines. Change them freely to suit your tastes and/or the ingredients you have on hand. Your only limitation in the gentle art of soupery is your imagination.

Experiment, have fun, enjoy. Above all else, enjoy. Pour yourself a glass of wine, tea, juice, or whatever turns you on, and have at it!